Featured Photo

Featured Photo Wednesday – Roberto Casadio

I love the expression in those eyes, and the colors in this photograph blending together to create a great image. I also like the angle at which Roberto choose to photograph this image. If he was standing up shooting down we might have lost the blurred kids in the background. Nice job!

I also like to spend time processing my shots when I first upload them to the computer, then I leave for a few days for even hours. When I come back to the image, I feel as if my eyes see the picture a bit better. As for this image, I wouldn’t change a thing!

On Wednesday nights, in July, there is a “kids market” in the centre of our hometown, where families trade used toys, clothes and whatever children have outgrown. It is a moment of gathering and entertainment, with street performers and concerts. I like to go and just put a prime lens on my camera, no flash – in the spirit of street photography, you may say. One of those evenings of last year, we were selling some of our children’s old stuff, and while people where crowding around our desk, my son was sitting aside, against a window – tired, bored, “begging” for something? I was planning to try out my new 28mm f/1.8, which I love on a full frame sensor, because I can blur the background and still see some perspective in the picture. But that is not the point. I had just taken my camera out of the bag, hardly set properly, but my eye didn’t want to miss the shot. It came out a bit blurred, in fact – shutter a tad slow, focus on the wrong part? Can you tell?
I usually spend time post-processing my shots, until the colours come out to my satisfaction. And perhaps a month later, say, I rework them in a totally different fashion – taste changes: black and white, or more saturated.
But there is something that sticks to me in this version of the picture of my son I took that night. Perhaps it is the look in his eyes, that says “Dad, you always taking pictures?”, or his dirty hand grabbing the air. Or it is the colours I finally (?) got. I cannot quite tell.
In any case, to me it is one view to digital photography: seize that moment and work on it. It will stay.